True Detective
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Were all in Night Country now, Otis Heiss growls at Liz toward the end of this weeksTrue Detective.
She sits so close to a blinking Christmas tree that the colored lights must make a mesmerizing blur.
By Christmas the last day of the first full week of night its harder to remain agnostic.
Night Country is the place that forces you to accept what cant possibly be.
Its also, given the funereal gloom, a curiously difficult place to sleep.
The hysterical screams of Annie K. keep Liz awake, and rightly.
And how well could Annies murder have been investigated if no one working the case even knew Clark existed?
Ennis is the faded little map dot that never sleeps.
Except, in a small room in Lizs house, someone does.
Shes a mother whos already lost one baby.
The girl at the crab plant.
Even Navarro is tormented.
Liz is as right to worry as Leah is to rebel.
This means hes still in the office when Hank returns from the tiny Ennis airfield empty-handed.
His mail-order bride got lost in transit.
On some level, he must have known, right?
And yet, Hank suspended enough disbelief to scatter red rose petals on his Realtree camo sheets.
Shes catfishing me; shes catfishing me not.
Meanwhile, Liz and Navarro shoulder the fieldwork, which means figuring out where Annies video was taken.
since a series of collapses.
There are maps, though, drafted by a man called you may have guessed it Otis Heiss.
If whatever attacked Otis caused the Tsalal deaths, then its (likely) older than Annies death.
Roses cryptic speculation fromPart Twosprings to mind: Its older than the ice, probably.
And of course she is.
Did anyone else clock that gorgeous, untouched Christmas cake?
Rose was a professor of something (the occult?
It lacks subtlety but, crucially, not accuracy.
So maybe itisher fault.
When they get back to the house, Leah packs a bag.
Still, Liz Alaskas most obstinate Scrooge opts for a response of, Go, get out.
The same light signature appears in Annies video as does the sandwich-making vlog.
(In truth, I still didnt see it even after it was explained.)
But why would there be lights in an ice cave in the first place?
The obvious person to ask, apparently, is the old Tsalal equipment engineer Oliver Tagaq.
Maybe the cops could even do it a day from now when Christmas is over!
But everything Liz does, she does urgently.
And when shes too drunk to drive (a.k.a.
now) or even provide backup (also now), she makes others do it urgently.
Theres a cult of personality around Liz that doesnt quite make sense to me yet.
Why do they have such faith in her?
Ive yet to see her catch a single criminal.
Its a fools errand, to boot.
On the floor, Navarro finds a rock and a piece of cardboard both scarred with Annies spiral.
So, who is having the worst Christmas Eve ever?
Still, its a third-place finish at best.
For a minute, I thought Pete might take the prize.
and that she would like to sleep now (which is reasonable).
Are you kidding me?
The son that Kayla puts to bed while youre off following orders?
Who cares who wanted Darwin more in utero?
Its Kayla taking care of him every night.
She walks out onto the blue ice and, beyond it, the winter sea.
He relocates her dislocated finger and assures her shes not alone.
He hugs her through her pained and desperate screaming.
Night Countryis technically a Christmas movie now, but can there be a Christmas morning without morning?
Liz tosses Holdens polar bear into the snow, same as Navarro did with her mothers necklace.
The dead are gone, she adds.
I also think that the scenes of them alone together feature most of the series clunkiest dialogue.
Because Navarro doesnt want to admit it out loud?
Admit it to herself?
Liz and Navarro wordlessly agree to check it out, their argument still simmering between them.
The dredge is abandoned but not vacant.
Theres a fire burning in an old oil drum, and Annies tattoos are carved on the walls.
Navarro sees or thinks she sees her blue-haired sister floating in the water.
Meanwhile, Liz is on her own, climbing through the rig without backup.
Hes hiding in the Night Country, Otis adds.
Were all in the Night Country now.
The episode ends with such menace that I was desperate to watch the next episode despite this ones faults.
What is Night Country, exactly?
Where are its borders?
Does it extend as far as the polar night is long?
Is Night Country a place where ghosts scream as loud as the living?
Or maybe its not defined by the supernatural at all.
Maybe Night Country is any place sustained by cutting into the dark earth below it.
